Such a column-type machine tool is referred to in German Published Patent Application No. 196 45 324, having a machine bed, a column that is traversable on the machine bed on guideways and on which at least one cutting tool movable in several axes is arranged, a supporting structure with guideways for the top end of the column, and at least one traverse drive, interacting with the guideways of the machine bed and of the supporting structure, for the column.
If the machine tool has only one traverse drive, no sufficiently high accelerations may be achieved during the traverse of the column, since the traverse drive performs away from the center of gravity of the column and therefore produces a tilting moment during acceleration. Although this disadvantage may be avoided by synchronous traverse drives in the region of the bottom and the top guideway of the column, the outlay for the traverse drives may be doubled. The supporting structure may also be complicated, since it may have to be approximately just as high as the column, so that a guideway may be arranged in the region of the top end of the column.
These problems may also occur in the column-type machine tool referred to in German Published Patent Application No. 28 52 846, the column of which is guided solely in guideways in the base region on the machine bed.